Barnes & Noble is putting itself up for sale! Remember when everyone thought B&N would become the Wal-Mart of book selling, an indomitable corporate force controlling the literary world? Boy how wrong that was, huh?

"Today, Barnes & Noble has a market capitalization of just under $950 million-even after a 25% run-up in after-hours trading Tuesday in the wake of the announcement," says the WSJ. Christ, that's even less than the New York Times Co. Amazon's market cap: $56 billion.

"Over the past three years, Barnes & Noble's annual profits have slid from $135.8 million to $75.9 million to $36.7 million." Amazon's net income over that same period: $476 million, $645 million, $902 million.